₦airaland Forum

Churches are what is holding Nigeria back. As Houses of Ignorance they are doing a great job impeding the intellectual progress of the country.

anyone to share with us?

4 Him:
more proof that you don't understand what you purport to talk about.
The blood of Jesus Christ - eternal salvation
Tithes - not always compulsory but a sign of gratitude from a christian to His Father.

Why are sacrifices (human and animals) not practised in christian churches today?

RedHotChic:
Tithing s required of christians to run the affairs of the church. I don't know why people have a problem with it when it's not even levied to church members. it's not by force but ask yourself, what is so difficult about giving God 10% of your income when he made it possible for you to earn them in the first place?

Wasn't tithing made redundant by the blood of JC? If not, what dispensation did it get to spare it from the blood of JC?

The god of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction:

Jealous and proud of it
A petty, unjust unforgiving control freak
A vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser
A misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.


Those of us schooled from infancy in his ways can become desensitized to their horror. A naif blessed with the perspective of innocence has a clearer perception. Winston Churchill's son Randolph somehow contrive to remain ignorant of scriptures until Evelyn Waugh and a brother officer, in a vain attempt to keep Churchill quiet when they were posted together during the war, bet him he couldn't read the entire bible in a fortnight: "Unhappily it has not had the result we hoped. He has never read any of it before and is hideously excited; keeps reading quotations aloud " I say I bet you didn't know this came in the bible . . . " or merely slapping his side and chortling "God, isn't God a shit"' Thomas jefferson, better read, was of a similar opinion: "The Christian God is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust."

Taken from The God Delusion, Page 31, by Richard Dawkins,


Can anyone make a case that these attributes of God as described above are unjustified?

The god of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction:

Jealous and proud of it
A petty, unjust unforgiving control freak
A vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser
A misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully


Those of us schooled from infancy in his ways can become desensitized to their horror. A naif blessed with the perspective of innocence has a clearer perception. Winston Churchill's son Randolph somehow contrive to remain ignorant of scriptures until Evelyn Waugh and a brother officer, in a vain attempt to keep Churchill quiet when they were posted together during the war, bet him he couldn't read the entire bible in a fortnight: "Unhappily it has not had the result we hoped. He has never any of it before and is hideously excited; keeps reading quotations aloud " I say I bet you didn't know this came in the bible . . . " or merely slapping his side and chortling "God, isn't God a shit"' Thomas jefferson, better read, was of a similar opinion: "The Christian God is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust."

Taken from The God Delusion, Page 31, by Richard Dawkins,


Can anyone make a case that these attributes of God as described above are unjustified?

Tithing is a practices that originates from the Old Testament era. But unlike most of the OT tradition that are claimed to have been made redundant by the blood of JC, tithing remains a practices encouraged and practised some Christian churches. The blood of JC is supposed to have done away with sacrifices (human and animals), dietary laws, cleanliness laws, scapegoating, and many of the ritualistic practices of the Jews at their temples.

Of all the ritualistic practices of the Jew, tithing is perhaps the only one still practised by some Christian bodies. Where in the NT is an exception made specifically about tithing? Why is tithing not considered redundant like the other ritualism the blood of JC replaced? BTW, what is acceptable as tithes today?

Is it because there are huge pecuniary implications to the practice which if given up would drastically impact the survival of many churches? Are these tithes not used to line the pockets of the church administrators?

So are the Mohamedans going to claims prescience on this matter? What if the scientific consensus on this matter changes. Are the Abrahamicist also going to drift towards the new consensus?

Scientists confirm that parts of earliest genetic material may have come from the stars
by Eurek Alert



http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/icl-sct061308.php

Scientists confirm that parts of earliest genetic material may have come from the stars

Scientists have confirmed for the first time that an important component of early genetic material which has been found in meteorite fragments is extraterrestrial in origin, in a paper published on June 15, 2008

Scientists have confirmed for the first time that an important component of early genetic material which has been found in meteorite fragments is extraterrestrial in origin, in a paper published on 15 June 2008.

The finding suggests that parts of the raw materials to make the first molecules of DNA and RNA may have come from the stars.

The scientists, from Europe and the USA, say that their research, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, provides evidence that life's raw materials came from sources beyond the Earth.

The materials they have found include the molecules uracil and xanthine, which are precursors to the molecules that make up DNA and RNA, and are known as nucleobases.

The team discovered the molecules in rock fragments of the Murchison meteorite, which crashed in Australia in 1969.

They tested the meteorite material to determine whether the molecules came from the solar system or were a result of contamination when the meteorite landed on Earth.

The analysis shows that the nucleobases contain a heavy form of carbon which could only have been formed in space. Materials formed on Earth consist of a lighter variety of carbon.

Lead author Dr Zita Martins, of the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, says that the research may provide another piece of evidence explaining the evolution of early life. She says:

"We believe early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoritic fragments for use in genetic coding which enabled them to pass on their successful features to subsequent generations."

Between 3.8 to 4.5 billion years ago large numbers of rocks similar to the Murchison meteorite rained down on Earth at the time when primitive life was forming. The heavy bombardment would have dropped large amounts of meteorite material to the surface on planets like Earth and Mars.

Co-author Professor Mark Sephton, also of Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering, believes this research is an important step in understanding how early life might have evolved. He added:

"Because meteorites represent left over materials from the formation of the solar system, the key components for life -- including nucleobases -- could be widespread in the cosmos. As more and more of life's raw materials are discovered in objects from space, the possibility of life springing forth wherever the right chemistry is present becomes more likely."

###

For further information please contact:

Colin Smith
Press Officer
Imperial College London
Email: cd.smith@imperial.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)207 594 6712
Out of hours duty press officer: +44 (0)7803 886 248

Dr Zita Martins
Department of Earth Science and Engineering
South Kensington Campus
Imperial College London
London SW7 2AZ, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 9982
Fax: +44 (0)20 7594 7444
Email: z.martins@imperial.ac.uk
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/z.martins

Notes to editors:

1. "Extraterrestrial nucleobases in the Murchison meteorite", Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Sunday 15 June 2008 (Print publication)

A full copy of the research can be downloaded at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2008.03.026

Zita Martins (1,2), Oliver Botta (3,4,5), Marilyn L. Fogel (6), Mark A. Sephton (2), Daniel P. Glavin (3), Jonathan S. Watson (7), Jason P. Dworkin (3), Alan W. Schwartz (, Pascale Ehrenfreund (1,3)
(1) Astrobiology Laboratory, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
(2) Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
(3) NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 699, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
(4) Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center, University of Maryland Baltimore, County, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA
(5) International Space Science Institute, Hallerstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
(6) GL, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015, USA
(7) Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
( Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 ED, Nijmegen,The Netherlands

2. About Imperial College London

Imperial College London - rated the world's fifth best university in the 2007 Times Higher Education Supplement University Rankings - is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 12,000 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and business, delivering practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture. Website: www.imperial.ac.uk

Your neighbour claims to be in communion with god and also claims to have had a command from god ordering him to sacrifice his son. He is make preparation to perform the act. What would you do?

1) Do nothing
2) Inform the authorities
3) Wait in anticipation for the act (afterall he is in a 1-2-1 with god)
4) Join him is the sacrificial act


See also https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-141283.0.html

Anybody has a view on this?

joomiegal:
Intelligent people less likely to believe in God Only goes to show how incredibly daft they are in the first place. God's defintion/view of wisdom is at loggerheads with the world's anyways,

@ huxley, please no vex, ( i really, reaally, mean no offence), but where do you have time to dig up all your atheistic, often esoteric information and threads from? im just curious, what do you do 4 a living?? please reply, thanks

I no vex oo.  I understand you be curious to know-o.

Well I have had an academic interest in religion for well over twenty years, since I started doubting its teachings when I was about 15/16 years old.  I have a personal library of about 100 books soley on religions, beliefs and mythologies. And about 30 books on philosophy and many other books on general sciences from geology, astronomy, biology, physics etc. I have been pursuing these interest for many years. Every month I purchase 3 or 4 new books on these subjects as well.  I periodically do a clean-out and send old books to Africa.

I work as and IT consultant for a well known global bank and work from home quite a great deal.  When I travel to work, I am usually accompanied by a couple of these books to keep me company.

I also scan the internet for anything on the religious/philosophical interest. The internet is a great resource for autodidacts like myself.

cgift:
Queshion: Is faith linked to intelligence?

Answer: NO!

Else all the great scientists we have ever had will decry God vehemently. On the oposite, they were actually very firm believers. Check out the factsd in history.
Unless you want to say those guys are not intelligent and then i wil know that your grey matter has expired.

You have to realise that until recently one could not openly declare one's skepticism in religious matters. Just look at the hounding Bertrand Russell got for being openly critical of religion (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3860/is_200111/ai_n9008065)

Since the Middle Ages, the trend amongst scientist has been a steady and prominent decline in religiosity, especially since the authorities have stop discriminating against non-believers. There was a time when you could not get admission into Cambridge and other major universities if you were not religious. Thankfully those dark days are long gone. So it is no surprise that earlier scientist, being brought up in a religious environment that was hostile to non-belief, would have been mostly religious.

In today's free-market of ideology, it is no surprise that the vast majority of elite scientist are non-believers as evidence from the membership of the Royal Society and the American National Institute of Science, viz;

A survey of Royal Society fellows found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described themselves as believers.

A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2111174/Intelligent-people-'less-likely-to-believe-in-God'.html

Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'
By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

People with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.

Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average.

A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.

But the conclusions - in a paper for the academic journal Intelligence - have been branded "simplistic" by critics.

Professor Lynn, who has provoked controversy in the past with research linking intelligence to race and sex, said university academics were less likely to believe in God than almost anyone else.

A survey of Royal Society fellows found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described themselves as believers.

A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God.

Professor Lynn said most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence - and their intelligence increased - many started to have doubts.

He told Times Higher Education magazine: "Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God."

He said religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent.

But Professor Gordon Lynch, director of the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society at Birkbeck College, London, said it failed to take account of a complex range of social, economic and historical factors.

"Linking religious belief and intelligence in this way could reflect a dangerous trend, developing a simplistic characterisation of religion as primitive, which - while we are trying to deal with very complex issues of religious and cultural pluralism - is perhaps not the most helpful response," he said.

Dr Alistair McFadyen, senior lecturer in Christian theology at Leeds University, said the conclusion had "a slight tinge of Western cultural imperialism as well as an anti-religious sentiment".

Dr David Hardman, principal lecturer in learning development at London Metropolitan University, said: "It is very difficult to conduct true experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and religious belief. Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt institutions."

Have your say: Is faith linked to intelligence?

Did you know that it was the cremation of Jesus Christ that popularise cremation in England? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cremation_in_the_Christian_World

Pastor AIO:
I meant to say I agree By The Way. I don't know why the letters B.T. W are being translated into between. This is a common internet abbreviation. Perhaps it's God's way of contributing to this 'lost in translation' discussion.

By the way = BTW
between = BTW (in lower cases)

OLAADEGBU:
For the reasons and evidences given in the weblinks supplied and even more. Try to educate yourself by going through the weblink provided if you are a dilligent, earnest seeker of the truth.

I have gone thru some of the articles on the link and remain unconvinced that science capable to proving the existence of god. I wonder why you are convinced.

Why do you think science is capable of proving the existence of god?

The Hellian (aka Christain) mind is so desperate to believe that anything would pass as evidence for their repugnant creed.

Pastor AIO:
I also think that an inherent stupidity that afflicts black people contributes to Holding Nigeria backwards.

You have to ask; What are the cultural factors that impede development, or create the environment conducive underdevelopment? Where are the African Newton, Rutherford, Darwin, Einstein, Wagner, Dawkins, Hawkins, Smith etc. Why is it that our cultural millieu does not produce the likes of these eminent thinkers?

It is obvious it is apocryphal as there are no references to real name, places, dates etc. I remember seeing this same tale about 5 years ago and I wrote a critique about it then.

What happen to the woman. Was she raised by "JC" to feed the baby and then left to die again? Would JC do a thing like that? How about digging them out of the grave and setting them all free? That is what I would call a miracle.

If you saw Abraham strapping Isaac to the alter in a bid to slashing his throat, thus sacrificing him, how would you have acted?

1) Do nothing and turn a blind eye
2) Try to intervene directly personally to stop the act
3) Raise an alarm to alert other people and the authorities
4) Wait in anticipation for the gory sight of blood
5) Help him tie Isaac to the alter


This question is adapted from a speech given by Barack Obama on Church/State Separation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvKX16Eygs0

The majority of JC teaching would hardly have been considered unique by his contemporaries. Where he made ethical pronouncements he was usually very far off the mark (as in turn the other check, chop off bodily parts for sins, not taking care of the morrow) and has been unsurprising ignored.

His doctrine of "loving your neighbour" is lifted from Leviticus and had also been pronounced by greater thinker than him many hundreds of years before. Almost every fundamental aspect of the teachings unique to him are being ignored by his followers today. Why they call themselves Christian is beyond me.

However, Jesus' most last and indelible legacy to posterity has been the doctrine of hell as a place of eternal torment and punishment. I would like to suggest that since this is the most significant of JC teachings, maybe followers of JC should call themselves Hellians instead of Christians.

In fact, as of today, I shall start referring to the all followers of JC as Hellians.


The second of JC greatest innovation was a intense dislike for wealth and progress as evidence in "the eye of a needle" comment, and Luke 14: 33. Just as well this is is largely ignored by his followers.

sleekymag:
Science is not the truth! Science rather, as someone said, is an empirical method of finding the truth. The metaphysical exists! There are so many things that are beyond the scope of man, but it takes revelation via research and divine inspiration for new discoveries that advance human existence to be made.
You can't know too much about God. Many of the early scientists that invented things that led to the advancement of society today were inspired by God.

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:9-10).

Even the bible also say that God's ways are higher than man's way, and his thoughts than our thoughts. He is the only wise God, the full embodiment of wisdom. Wisdom with men, as the bible puts it, is foolishness in God's sight.

Religion however can yield answers for the curious soul, when there's FAITH. Faith is believing in not only what you can see, but also what you can't see, it is believing what you might not be able to explain, but you're convinced its there!

Can you name any "truths" about reality that have been revealed by religion or faith?

CAn you name anything for which the best explanation was a religious/biblical one, but that has now been replaced by a scientific explanation?

Can you name anything for which the best explanation was a scientific one, but the scientific explanation has been replaced by a theistic one?

Two of Jesus greatest innovations were;

1) The doctrine of hell as a place of eternal punish, and
2) His intense disapproval of wealth and progress.

The Old Testament is very positive about wealth and also paints a picture of hell which is deeply antithetical to JC's view of hell. These are JC greatest legacies. Everything else he plagiarised from the OT tradition.

Did the resurrected saints ascend into heaven like Jesus? Or what happen to them?

3.5 billion people can all be deluded.

Check this out too: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=110955.msg1929006#msg1929006

Pastor AIO:
They walked about having conquered death in Jesus mighty name. Haven't you heard of St. Germain. Or even Adam Monroe, aka Takezo Zensai. What was the name of that guy from Highlander? They are many many many.

So what became of these latter-day death-defier ?

ifyalways:
There is a diffrence between ressurection and "not seeing death".Elijah was taken up to heaven by whirlwind,lazarus was brought back to life by Jesus,Dorcas was brought back to life too and a whole lots of others.one thing was standing out. . . .all by faith and the da power of God.BTW who are the so called ressurected saints?care to name names?

Did you read the verses above? Here they are again;

52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.


The original authors does not give their names. I suppose the were too numerous to be individually named.

ifyalways:
@OP without the ressurection,you are lost forever.lost without hope.without ressurection,there would be no today,no tommorrow,no eternity.the ressurection of Christ shows his eternal defeat over death and hades.shows Christs supremacy over every other power or being.Guy,da ressurection of Christ is so so special

Can you try answering the questions on the main post about the resurrected saints and not preach?

imhotep:
Douglas Adams died of a heart attack at the age of 49 on 11 May 2001, during the rest period of his regular workout at a private gym in Montecito, California. He had unknowingly suffered a gradual narrowing of the coronary arteries, which led at that moment to a myocardial infarction and a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Adams had been due to deliver the commencement address at Harvey Mudd College on 13 May.

His funeral was held on 16 May 2001 in Santa Barbara, California. Several friends and people he had worked with were in attendance. His ashes were placed in Highgate Cemetery in north London in June 2002.

Source => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams#Death

Yes, he died but has resurrected and is living somewhere amongst his friends and has been seen by many.